I think this film is a dark romantic comedy
If I could just try to throw in something positive here, I just finished watching the film and reading the user comments, reviews etc, and my take on this film is that it is a bit of a dark romantic comedy. To give kudos to Giada Colagrande as an actress, I think she pulls of the moody, religious and indignant lover well, and combined with DeFoe's gaunt, mysterious, and galavanting character, the two lovers work well in a seductive and neurotic way that surprisingly exudes a lot of the tenderness, and vulnerability that would be felt if real people were experiencing something as confusing as falling in love in the middle of dealing with the sharp grief of death. As truths are revealed about Karl, Eleanora's former lover inside the setting of the strange house that he left her, the two characters transform into more meaningful and developed roles. Eleanora says this best when she screams at Leslie that he is the house's caretaker, and that he should "take care of her too." As a Catholic, I also identified strongly toward the end of the film when through Eleanora's dreams, she deals with insecure feelings of comparing herself to one of Karl's "B*tches or Whores" and addresses the jealousy she is beginning to feel for Leslie. In her dreams, she crosses herself several times. Giada's dark and exotic beauty and Defoe's gaunt and sinister character pull of the atmosphere of the film well. The ending-well, the way I saw it was that is when the title actually made sense. She is the "black widow" and goes looking for answers in the house of her deceased lover, only to find new love and end up experiencing his death as well. With and ending this abrupt, I thought that the film was a bit of a dark comedy.
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